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"Wake Up In Moloch:" Modernity, "Howl," And The Beats' Spiritual Quest, Felix Freeland

English Honors Theses

This capstone seeks to shed light on the spiritual nature of the Beat Generation's philosophy, using Ginsberg's poem "Howl" as a primary text. By first comparing Beat spirituality to the transcendental poetry of Whitman and then comparing their belief to Kierkegaard's idea of Faith, I demonstrate that Beat spirituality is a reaction to and protest against the ethics of secular, American Modernity.